w
'COME
1 TO
THINK
OF it..:
by
frank count
I was talking the other day to one of them aides to the
Governor This ain't no everyday occurence with me. you
understand, but me and the Governor been right close ever
since he had his picture took with me back the first of the
year. I -was glad to do it. I could tdl won't nobody nudging up
to him long's he had them long side burns. It's them little
things. You cant never tell when it will strike a fellow right.
I asked the aide how the Governor was gitting along and he
aid he'd had a slight cold. Said he'd been in bed with it. I
didnt know that. If I had I'd a sent him a get well card. I got
some left over from the last time the boss was sick.
"How come the
Governor put all that
tax on them cigarettes
and soft drinks?" I ask
ed.
"I have been au
thorized to say on be
half of the Governor
that His Excellency had
absolutely nothing at
all to do with it. It was '
the General Assembly
that voted the tax. The
Governor simply asked
for the money." -
"Well, that aint the
way them legislators are
Idling it. They said the
Governor demanded
that they tax cigarettes and soft drinks. Did the Governor
demand?" 1 asked. ? i
"Absolutely not." the aide said, "I have been authorized to
ay on behalf of the Governor that he most definitely did not
demand. He simply told the members of the General Assembly
that it was likely to get mighty dusty in their counties unless
he could find some money somewhere. We in the Governor's
office definitely do not view this as demanding."
"Julian Alkbrook from down in Halifax County says the
Governor dont need the money. How do you explain that?" 1
asked and I hadnt oughta.
"I have been authorized by the Governor to say that we
have never heard of Mr. Allsbrook and besides we hope he
never comes to Raleigh again and he can keep Sam Johnson ?
with him."
"That's another thing t meant to ask you about. Sam
Johnson from right here in Raleigh voted for the taxes, tie
shore dont want Raleigh to get dusty. But he done changed
his mind. He said he didn't understand the bill was going to be *
so complicated. How come you and the Governor made the
thing so complicated that old Sam couldn't understand it?"
"I have been authorized by the Governor to say that we no
longer know anyone named Sam Johnson."
"You aint giving me a powerful lot of answers. You know
that don't you? How's things on Bald Head-no offense meant.
Y'all decided what to do with it yet?"
"I have been authorized by the Governor to ignore any
questions about Bald Head."
"Well, can you tell me, how's Ben Roney? "
"I have been authorized to say that Mr. Roney will have to
speak for himself Now if you have no further questions. I
really must be getting along."
"What's your aD fired hurry? Where you got to go?"
"I've been sent to pick up some milk for the children.
We've taking them off soft drinks as of today. I've been
authorized to say that the reason involves state security and
cannot, under any circumstances, be disclosed."
Sixty five of the seventy-four civil
rights division attorneys in the United
States Justice Department are taking
exception with their bosses. These
eager young lions content that the
Nixon Administration is going too
slow on school integration. Needless
to say. most of these are holdovers
from the no-education, t-.tal- integra
tion Johnson Administration.
The main point of contention, it
seems, is the delay granted by the
Nixon camp to thirty school districts
in Mississippi. The liberal, tax-paid
The FrS&Mh Times
!???? *??**#? A Thvrti#, Ui ?n AM O I PrM*l? f I n
YourAward Winning County Newspaper
Thursday, October 2, 1969
Haynsworth's hang-up
JJ M
STOCK
CO\*TC >40>A\V^ g
THE PASSING SCENE
Anybody who feels at ease in the world
today is a fool. ? Robert M. Hutchins.
A celebrity is a person who works hard
all his life to become well known, then
wears dark glasses to avoid being recog
nized. ? Fred Allen.
Your children are growing up when
they stop asking where they came from
and start refusing to say where they are
going. ? Joan I. Welsh.
The blonde down the street reports she
has found the best way to preserve her
wool bikini in the winter? wrap it around
a moth ball. ? Louisville Courier-Journal.
WHAT OTHERS ARE SAYING
Up, Up And Away
The Courier Times, Roxboro, N. C.
Just in case you haven't gotten the
word, prices and wages have increased
a bit over the last 30 years and the
Bureau of Labor Statistics recently
provided a sampling of what has taken
place.
The statistics compare average
prices and wages in the pre-World War
II year of 1939 as against average^ of
June 1969. Jot this down in your
little black book for conversation fod
der.
Here's the story on prices:
In 1939, milk sold for 12.2 cents;
this past June it was going for an
average of 31.5 cents, an increase of
258 per cent. Bread went from 7.9
cents, in 1939, to 22.9 cents, up 290
per cent. A dozen eggs, in 1939,
weraged 32 cents; the June price was
51.3 cents, a 160 per cent increase. A
pound of potatoes cost 2.5 cents 30
years ago; as of June 1969 the cost
was 8.7 cents, up 348 per cent. A
pound of sugar has gone from 5.4
cents to 12.5 cents, up 231 per cent.
A pound of round steak jumped from
a 1939 price of 36 cents to $1.35, up
370 per cent. A pound of butter went
for 32.5 cents 30 years ago; in June
butter sold at an average 84.3 cents a
pound an increase of 259 per cent.
And, a pound of cabbage jumped
from 3.4 cents to 12.7 cents, up 373
per cent.
Kinda hits you where you live,
doesn't it?
Wages, figured from union sales in
1939 and up to this past June, also
have increased substantially.
In 1939, steelworkers averaged $30
a week, at mid- 1969 they were earn
ing $165 weekly -a 550 per cent in
crease.
Other wage comparisons are as
follows:
Carpenter--$1.40 an hour to $5.84,
up 417 per cent.
Plumber-$1.53 an hour to $6.29,
up 411 percent.
Truck Driver -79 cents an hour to
$3.78, up 478 per cent.
Auto worker $33.58 a week to
$170.10, up 506 per cent.
Printer -$1.19 an hour to $4.27, up
358 per cent.
The 1939 year is used in the
Bureau of Labor Statistics figures be
cause it precedes the decades of spiral
ing brought on by World War II.
Some of the price and wage figures
cited above are higher how than the
June 1969 averages.
Worst Catastrophe
NEW YORK ? Hurricane
Betsy, which ravaged Florida,
Mississippi and Louisiana in
September. 1965. was history's
costliest insurance catastrophe,
according to the Insurance In
formation Institute. It inflicted
S7 1 H million in insured proper
ty losses, more than doubling
the previous record loss of S9B0
million in the San Francisco
earthquake and fire of 1906.
LOCAL EDITORIAL COMMENT
What Freedom, Whose Choice
government attorneys want to shove
integration down the throats of any
and all who would dare offer any
suggestion that reasonableness and
common cense should be used.
Their disappointment at the delay
is understandable. These bureaucrats
have been accustomed to full Ad
ministration support in their dicta
torial handling of jchot matters, part
icularly in the South. It is a wonder
that they can even stand up under the
shock of being slowed down.
The Nixon Administration has not
softened on school integration. It has,
in the Mississippi cases, exerted some
minor degree of intelligence not wit
nessed in years past. Integration of
schools, contrary to what civil rights
activists might proclaim, is a process
which takes time. The heavy handed
manner in which it has been hammer
ed home to many school districts has
resulted in disruption of schools and
massive move-outs by large numbers
of white parents.
Riots, demonstrations, boycotts
and confusion have attended most
forced integration orders. And this fall
has been no exception.
In Cumberland County and Wilson
parents have been up in arms over the
assignment of their children to schools
they do not wish them to attend. In
Asheville, Negro students, disillusion
ed over student government elections,
have rioted, bringing on a curfew and
the State Highway Patrol.
In view of the obvious discontent
on the part of parents all over the
country over the manner in which
Washington is dictating their lives and
the education of their children, why
are these federal attorneys and others
like them so opposed to a right as
fundemental to this nation as the
Constitution itself7
Where is the justification for the
elimination of a citizen's free choice?
Certainly the Constitution is clear on
this matter. Article IX says: "The
enumeration in the Constitution, of
certain rights, shall not be construed
to deny or disparage others retained
by the nnopie". And Article X states:
'The powers not delegated to the
United States by the Constitution, are
reserved to the States respectively, or
to the people."
What right do these people have
under law, to deny any American a
free choice? Where in any act of
Congress does it say that this right is %:
to be denied the people?
Dewitt Clinton, Governor of New
York many years ago, said: 'The first
duty of government is the encourage
ment of education....! consider the
system of our common school as the
palladium of our freedom." Obvious
ly, there are many in government
today who have not read nor heeded
Clinton's statement
Results of a Newsweek Magazine
poll, released this week, reveal that
forty six percent of Americans believe
"The United States has changed for
the worse over the past decade" and
58 percent believe the nation is likely
to change for the worse in the next
decade.
Shouldn't \ this sound an alarm
somewhere in Washington? After Viet
nam, school integration is the nation's
biggest problem according to many
experts. In the name of eliminating
discrimination against one group,
Washington ha<" launched mass dis
crimination against an even larger
group.
"Freedom", as Gandhi once put it,
"is a gift of God." And as the late
President Eisenhower explained it,
"Freedom is a state in which, under
rule of law, every human will have the
right and a fair chance to live his own
life, to choose his own path, to out his
own destiny."
When the federal government
under whatever premise it might use
denies American parents of the right
to choose the school to which its child
will go, it denies the very things for
which this Country has stood since its
beginning.
While the young lions pout in their
plush offices in Washington, they
should ponder the things they have
done to this country; its beliefs; its
principles and perhaps they should be
reminded that they- being well paid
from the public trough- have a free
dom of choice. In Washington, they
can move out -which many have done;
or they can afford private schools or
personalized tutoring- which many
others have done. Elsewhere in the
country, as education crumbles, many
Americans have no such choice.
And like their forefathers who
came to this country seeking freedom,
they cry in the wilderness: What
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